A lucky 13 ladies, hauled ass and grass and tons of mass, for the Willesden Town Team's tube Station Garden project!! HURRAAHHHHH

What can I say but WOOOWWWW WOW WOW WOW WOW The Brent team did not let me down this week after I sent out a call for help and requested many hands on deck for this show-stopping task!

Showing up to tackle the big project on hand was a fierce team of females, demonstrating all the girl power under the sun! Although we were missing our lovely regular lads; Dan, Enrique and Samuel, we had no doubt our girly grit would be enough to do the business!

After warm welcomes to newbies; Nic and Alba, the team prepared themselves for the epic journey..... ermmmm okay, it was literally across the street, however, that short stint did not phase me, as I knew what was in store!!

So the amazing community group - Willesden Town team are a collection of local residents who aim to give back and make Willesden a more pleasant place to live, much like us at Goodgym Brent. What a power-house team we make then! So when they requested our help with some heavy lifting and shifting, how could we turn them down?

The task Willesden Green tube station has 4 platforms, 2 for the Jubilee line, and 2 for the Metropolitan. The Metropolitan trains do not stop at Willesden any more. Consequently there are two platforms where the travelling public do not have access to. These platforms have brick planters on, where the town team garden. Last year, for the first time ever Willesden Green entered the TFL underground garden competition TFL in Bloom, and lo and behold, won the first prize, in the "cultivated garden" section. So with the competition coming up again this summer, they want to retain their position at the top of the league.

In order to do this they must develop the gardens and they currently don't have sufficient organic materials to keep planting. Therefore, Willesden Town Team had two dumpy bags weighing a ton each, one of compost/topsoil, and one of wood bark/mulch delivered at the top of the stairs of the tube!! Here's where we stepped in to help Our task for the night was to help them shovel, bag, lift and shift the compost from street level down the stairs to the platforms, ready for the green-fingered workers to set to planting over the next few weeks.

Now when I tell you these bags were big that is no serious understatement, in fact, they were enormous with a combined weight of 2000kg!!! So with the timer set and the girls ready to begin, we set to work and said Soil long to the streets and down to the depths we did run!

The girls worked tirelessly for a solid hour, shovelling, lifting and then running up and down the stairs to make sure we completed the task on time, with a cleared street at the end! And oh my goodness, did they put in some blood, sweat and tears..... okay tears were of laughter, but still!!!

On average each girl ran 10 trips, carrying 20kg a time down the 34 steps from ground level to the platforms!! All done in a perfectly timed hour. WOW!!!! Now that is some serious strength work right there!!!!

We watched as the bags got smaller and smaller and eventually the compost up top, was down below and the clean-up and sweep was the last thing to go! we were even treated to ice cold waters from Nest cafe next to the station, gifted to us by the wonderful owner Omar! Thank you!!!!

Now despite the incredible efforts, we still had some time to kill at the end of the session...... So, what better way to play out the rest of the day than Racing the train of course I'm not kidding!!! The girls steamed their way up and down the platform racing the jubilee line on the opposite side.... and yes.... of course they won!!! A train is no match for these wonder-women, who even had enough puff left to knock out some tempo runs street level to cap off the night!!!

With stretch and rest time upon us, we marvelled at the epic efforts and anticipation of sore quads in the morning because of all those stair runs!!! But hey hoe urban gardening ain't for the faint of heart, it takes real girl power to show this mulch gumption!

Until next time fitness familia!

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE

Happy New Year!! Was the cheer from the 12 on mass, doing the dash, in a flash, with a whole heap of sass! That's one big welcome back from Goodgym Brent. POW POW

On the most FREEEEZZZIINNGGG Evening of recent months, 2017 was kicked off with a ferociously frosty start. But not letting that swine Jack frost stand in our way, warming up the atmosphere was the beaming faces of the courageous crew who bravely stepped up to the plate, for the first Goodgym Brent of the year! Horrah

Joining me on week one was a gallant gang of fabulous familiars; Dan the (only) man, Foxy french Isabelle, Lovely Liz (fresh from smashing her 5k goal time woo hoo), Clare Mouse in the house Moscrop, The one and only Les-Sharpes, and Debs and Tabitha (aka Sister Sledge). Joining the ranks were also three sensational newbies Lois, Karen and Beth, all just as motivated to kick start the year with some awesome Goodgym community spirit and fitness fun!

Task Master

So after housekeep and welcomes the crew set to work on the task at hand and paper-chased their way into January with a leaflet drop and healthy trot around the glorious borough of Brent. Encouraging the masses to crack a smile and join us for the weeks to come of community do-gooding and working off the Christmas puddings.

First Celeb spot of the year

With our sights set on the track for the night (The Queens Park 1 mile challenge) the team continued weaving through the streets while sprinkling the Goodgym message. Not 1 mile from base did we stumble across our first celeb sight of the year, 'Friday night Dinner' TV actress Tamsin Greig who we accosted on her doorstep with our leaflets and POW POW positivity. With her hands otherwise engaged carrying a dangling child she shouted Put the leaflet in my mouth so Lois happily obliged!

Show business

Once the 'Show biz' spots were behind us, we got down to the real business of the night, the ready made track - One mile circumference of Queens Park. Lining up the troops timer at the ready, just about to begin, we were joined on mass by another runner, excited by the positive vibes we were pushing out like a tornado. So, never missing a chance to recruit, we joined forces with our solitary runner - Toby, who joined just in time, for stop watch special of the one mile challenge. Delighted to join the club he stepped up to the plate with the rest of the team and it was THREE, TWO, ONE and their off!!

Dozen get better than that

With our gang of 12 rolling deep the dash went off in a flash and before long the athletes were gunning down the last stretch in impressive form! Every single runner coming in under 9mins with the first in place just shy of 7! Amazing!!!

Homeward bound

Breathless and steaming (literally steaming) a quick stretch and catch of breath and the team were off once more. A gentle cool down run took us the last mile back to base, with chats and laughter in the air. So much fun to be had that we barely even felt the cold, that was until back at The Queensbury we all walked in dribbling down our frozen faces. LOL

It was an absolute pleasure, a first week back I shall treasure! See you next week to continue the New Years' Runsolution to a life of passion and purpose.

DO GOOD. FEEL GOOD. INSPIRE